The Hull Daily Mail is reporting that Prezza will tell constituency activists at a party at his home on Saturday that he intends to step down as an MP. After trousering £300,000 for his memoirs (ghost written obviously) this was always on the cards.

Guido will miss the entertainment that the grammar mangling, pie-eating pugilist and serial adulterer brought to politics.

In the running for his seat: former Shipley MP, Chris Leslie, Jonathan Ashworth: a Tresury SpAd and Brownite loyalist, popular local councillor Steven Bayes and his spin-doctor son David Prescott.

It also occurs to Guido that the timing of the decision might indicate that Prezza thinks the election is very imminent…